Aquasis | American manatee (Trichechus manatus) sightings during boat surveys in the Potiguar Basin, Northeastern Brazil

This dataset contains records of American manatee (*Trichechus manatus*) obtained during systematic boat surveys conducted by Aquasis along the eastern coast of Ceará, northeastern Brazil, as part of the project “Status de Conservação e Plano de Ação Preliminar para o Peixe-boi Marinho (*Trichechus manatus manatus*) no Litoral Leste do Ceará”, funded by the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment through the National Environment Fund (FNMA).Boat-based surveys were conducted between August 2003 and November 2004 to investigate the spatial distribution of manatees.

A total of 10 boat surveys were conducted, comprising approximately 157 hours of monitoring effort. Manatee sightings recorded during the surveys were georeferenced and associated with their respective sampling events.The surveys contributed to the assessment of the conservation status of the species in eastern Ceará and to the identification of areas of importance for manatees in the region.